Hon. Zel M. Fischer

Honorable Zel M. Fischer was appointed to the Supreme Court of Missouri October 2008, by Governor Matt Blunt, and retained by the voters in the November 2010 general election receiving over 66% of the vote for a 12-year term expiring December 31, 2022.

Judge Fischer is an ASTAR Fellow, which is a select group of judges from around the country who have special training and education to preside over complex cases involving difficult science and technology issues. Judge Fischer is a frequent lecturer to judges and lawyers regarding the intersection of science and the law as well as constitutional issues and professional ethics.

Prior to becoming a Judge on the Supreme Court of Missouri, Judge Fischer was a law clerk for the Honorable Andrew Jackson Higgins of the Supreme Court of Missouri, a trial lawyer, and a trial judge. He received his law degree with distinction from the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law. He received his B.A. with double majors in political science and philosophy from William Jewell College.

Judge Fischer was the first state Supreme Court judge to author an opinion that held that the right to bear arms in the Second Amendment applied to the states pursuant to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment through the incorporation doctrine, which predated the United States Supreme Court decision in McDonald.